[Air-l] crisis in the Ukraine

Wed Nov 24 17:01:50 PST 2004

>I'm forwarding the below which was posted to Crtnet (the Listserve of the 
>National >Communication Association). I'm forwarding it a) to raise 
>awareness of the issue, and b) >as an example of how email can be a tool 
>for social change, activism and digital >empowerment.

I am reading a fascinating book edited by Andrew Feenberg and Darin Barney: 
Community in the Digital Age: Philosophy and Practice (Rowman & Littlefield 
Publishers; August 15, 2004) and it seems to me that I do agree with the 
book’s premise that technology itself actually has very little to do with 
social change. “The issue here is not merely how the technology is used but 
what it becomes as a result of the different possible uses that are imagined 
for it” (p. 14).

Here’s what has been reported on CNN’s web site about the crisis in Ukraine:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Wednesday said 
the United States does not accept the results of Ukraine's presidential 
elections as legitimate, citing "credible reports of fraud and abuse."

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/24/powell.ukraine/index.html

Therefore, two questions:
How can our online organization’s awareness be raised in light of such 
polarized view?
How can email be a tool for social change then?

Jarek Janio
Santiago Canyon College
Orange, California

>From: "Ulla Bunz" <bunz at scils.rutgers.edu>
>Reply-To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
>To: "Air List" <air-l at aoir.org>
>Subject: [Air-l] crisis in the Ukraine
>Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 10:13:30 -0500
>
>
>I'm forwarding the below which was posted to Crtnet (the Listserve of
>the National Communication Association). I'm forwarding it a) to raise
>awareness of the issue, and b) as an example of how email can be a tool
>for social change, activism and digital empowerment.
>Ulla
>----------------------------------------------------
>Ulla Bunz
>Assistant Professor
>Department of Communication
>Rutgers University
>4 Huntington Street
>New Brunswick, NJ 08901
>Email: bunz at scils.rutgers.edu
>----------------------------------------------------
>
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>November 23, 2004, Number 8419
>Communication Research and Theory Network
>a service of the National Communication Association
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>Editor's note: CRTNET is taking a Thanksgiving break and will return
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>
>Crisis in the Ukraine (Lance Strate)
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Date: Tues 11/23/04
>From: Lance Strate STRATE at FORDHAM.EDU
>
>I just received this message from a Ukrainian communication scholar
>associated with the Media Ecology Institute in Lviv.
>
>Lance Strate
>Department of Communication and Media Studies
>Fordham University
>Bronx, NY  10458
>(718) 817-4864
>(718) 817-4868 (fax)
>strate at fordham.edu
>
>
>Hi, Lance
>please pass my e-mail to all who want to know what is
>going on in my country now.
>
>Today is the first day after the second tour of our
>elections. You cannot imagine what is going here right
>now! I think nobody knows what can happen in the
>nearest future. Almost all of my friends and relatives
>didn't sleep at all last night watching TV.
>
>We have something like information blockade on the
>real facts. The only independent channel here is The
>Fifth Channel, its journalists gained their right to
>tell the truth by going on hunger-strike but the
>president and premier tried to block it up. Many
>journalists of other channels quit their jobs
>because they did not want to be engaged in
>falsifications and tell lies to their audience..
>You cannot imagine what kind of falsification our
>premier (imprisoned for two times for violent acts and
>rape!) resorts to. Now we have various military troops
>round Kyiv and inside it as well as in Lviv. Last
>weekend the train with BTR and tanks arrived to our
>city.
>
>But the worst was during the calculation of the
>voting. The regime forced people to go and vote for
>their candidate, they would beat people, there were
>numerous attempts to steal boxes with bulletins. The
>voters organized by themselves guarding of their
>election districts. Two policemen were cruelly beaten
>and one killed when they tried to resist to groups of
>bands organized by premier who try to become
>PRESIDENT.
>
>In Donets'k (an Eastern region where Yanukovych's
>rating is the highest) more than 100% (!!!) of voters
>participated in the elections.
>
>There were attempts to steal election boxes, to burn
>them or to destroy them.
>
>Those who work in public offices were ordered to vote
>for Yanukovych under the threat of dismissal and some
>person on high public level were ordered to vote for
>him under the threat of death.
>
>Many students were kicked out of universities for
>their participation in the pre-election activities on
>the side of Yuschenko. Many journalists were beaten
>and their cameras were broken just because they wanted
>to be present at the elections districts. Even in Lviv
>where 93% voted for Yuschenko, some people tried to
>burn the boxes with bulletins and somebody put acid
>into the box  which also destroyed the bulletins. All
>these things were organized in the regions where
>people voted mostly for Yuschenko.
>
>I couldn't remember such things even during the period
>of Soviet regime.
>
>Revolution is about to burst out in our country. All
>over Ukraine people are going on meeting and strikes
>to protect their choice. The world doesn't have any
>moral right to stand aside keeping silent.
>
>This is not a conflict between two personalities, this
>is a clash of two worldviews, of criminals and honest
>people, of the Ukrainian nation, which has made its
>choice and the ruling clique, which doesn't want to
>give up the power.
>
>Nearly to the last days we had the lack of information
>about everything going on in our country in world
>press. This is the kind of problem that cannot be
>handled by our country single-handedly, since freedom
>of speech in Ukraine leaves much to be desired.  That
>is why we really lack truthful, balanced and reliable
>information about what is going on in our country.
>Your President says that your country is against
>terrorism. And what about crime as a state policy?
>Does he think it is less dangerous?
>
>I want to ask you to pass my e-mail to all the people
>in your country who can have influence on  the
>situation in our country.
>
>Hope everything would be not so terrible as it looks
>now.
>
>Nataliya Gabor.
>
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